Faculty Salaries Up 3.4%

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The median salary increase for faculty members at four-year colleges and universities was 3.4 percent for the 2005-6 academic year, according to data being released today by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. Last year's average increase was 3.2 percent.

The data suggest that the gap between private and public colleges in terms of salaries is increasing. This year, the median increase at privates was 3.7 percent while the median increase at publics was 3.1 percent. The public increase was identical last year, but the private increase was 3.4 percent, meaning that the size of the gap in percentage increase doubled -- from .3 to .6 percent in a year. The largest increases that the survey found were at private doctoral institutions (4.0 percent) while the smallest were at public master's and bachelor's institutions (3.0 percent)

Each spring brings a series of salary surveys in higher education, with different emphases. The CUPA-HR survey focuses on disciplinary comparisons and does not feature the institution-by-institution breakdowns that are a key feature of the American Association of University Professors study, which will be released next month. CUPA-HR also does a separate analysis of faculty salaries at community colleges.

Among disciplines, CUPA-HR found that at both public and private institutions, the best paid (leaving out health-related professions) are in law, engineering, and business. The lowest paid disciplines are different in public institutions (visual and performing arts, parks and recreation, and English) and private (parks and recreation, argriculture, and library science).

The following table shows the disciplinary ranges, for all four-year colleges and universities, in selected fields outside of medicine.

Average Salaries at 4-Year Institutions, by Discipline and Rank, 2005-6

Discipline

Full Prof.

Assoc. Prof.

Asst. Prof.

New Asst. Prof.

Instructor

Agriculture

$82,974

$64,667

$55,315

$56,288

$40,998

Architecture

85,441

67,086

53,593

54,101

44,715

Area, ethnic , cultural and gender studies

90,973

66,427

53,655

51,099

38,548

Biological and biomedical sciences

90,040

63,929

54,101

51,883

39,798

Business

102,702

84,095

78,151

80,252

49,271

Communication and journalism

77,496

60,411

49,515

47,806

38,806

Communications technologies

79,178

66,244

52,973

46,959

45,942

Computer and information sciences

98,705

78,944

69,178

68,257

46,672

Education

78,179

60,615

50,296

49,333

40,344

Engineering

107,961

80,206

70,019

68,707

49,592

Engineering technologies/ technicians

79,446

65,687

56,114

56,113

43,452

English language and literature

76,413

57,921

47,249

45,882

34,712

Family and consumer sciences

79,665

62,437

51,055

49,988

38,486

Foreign languages, literatures and linguistics

79,964

60,068

48,900

47,016

37,111

History

80,706

59,470

47,994

45,723

38,030

Legal Professions

136,634

98,530

81,005

79,437

56,667

Liberal arts

74,228

59,982

48,635

47,094

38,620

Library science

77,583

65,296

47,972

49,783

41,059

Mathematics

84,059

61,647

51,547

50,151

37,761

Multi- and interdisciplinary studies

83,214

62,098

51,710

45,928

38,060

Natural resources

85,141

64,326

53,200

51,262

41,482

Nursing

77,583

63,615

53,075

51,716

46,292

Parks and recreation

73,748

59,905

49,618

49,597

39,413

Philosophy and religious studies

82,030

59,429

48,162

46,785

37,906

Physical sciences

89,187

62,743

52,775

51,354

40,256

Psychology

82,554

60,840

50,315

48,698

39,546

Public administration

84,902

63,523

52,311

52,389

43,747

Security and protective services

77,614

62,000

49,711

47,237

40,625

Social sciences

87,079

63,842

52,998

51,720

39,634

Theology and religious vocations

68,214

56,943

45,927

44,731

41,072

Visual and performing arts

73,177

57,843

47,043

45,382

39,102

A complete report on the salary data may be purchased from CUPA-HR on the association's Web site.